Odette Yousef

Reporter, North Side Bureau

From our community bureau on Devon Avenue, Odette covers Chicago’s North Side and the people who live there.

Before she joined WBEZ in March 2010, Odette was a reporter for WABE-FM, the local NPR affiliate in Atlanta. There, she covered everything from local politics and business, to criminal courts and health systems. Her work was recognized with the Atlanta Press Club’s 2008 Radio Journalist of the Year, as well as several Edward R. Murrow and Associated Press awards. Previously, Odette was a producer for NPR's Talk of the Nation in Washington, DC.

Odette has a B.A. in Economics and East Asian Studies from Harvard University.

Now a resident of Chicago’s North Side, Odette was born and grew up in suburban Boston, MA. The weather was warmer there.

Elgin, like many other Chicago suburbs, saw huge demographic changes the last twenty years. But you would never be able to tell that nearly half of the city is now Latino if you look at who's working in the local government.

Illinois legislators quietly passed a bill last week to address the hot-button issue of what to do about plastic bags that end up in landfills. So why does this bill have so many environmental groups and cities upset?